It’s Back: The Hampsten Gavia Shirt

A bit more than six months ago I had an idea. This happens to me all the time and usually no one gets hurt. Normally, I have ideas that are best executed in prose and then I sit down and bang away at little pieces of plastic until my creative urge subsides. It works out well for nearly all involved nearly all the time. But every now and then I have an idea that requires enlisting the help of people with talents in my distinctive areas of deficit. The artist Bill Cass is one such victim. Bill, as you may recall, was responsible for our Eddy T-shirt based on my Peloton Magazine feature about his 1972 season. My history with Bill goes back to Asphalt Magazine and Bicycle Guide. I’ve not seen another artist who can capture the kinetic sense of cycling as accurately as Bill can.

I realized that we were closing in on the 25th anniversary of Andy Hampsten’s 1988 victory at the Giro d’Italia, a mark unequaled by another American rider, clean or otherwise. That’s worth celebrating, right?

So I approached Andy with my suggestion and asked him what we could do for him. A royalty on this sort of thing isn’t unusual. He suggested that instead, we make a donation to the Colorado league of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA). I was thrilled by the idea and welcomed the chance to do something to help NICA’s larger mission.

As Bill and I discussed when he might have the bandwidth to do the art and what it should depict, we kept returning to an underplayed reality of stage 14, the stage that took in the Gavia on the way into Bormio. Hampsten’s ability as a climber is what separated him from the pack, what allowed him to get his gap. However, what virtually no photos or video document from that day is how he kept that lead—by descending like a BASE jumper. Only Panasonic’s Erik Breukink was able to catch him before the finish, and even so did that only after the descent was effectively complete. We’ve long celebrated Hampsten’s ability to ascend like an eagle into the clouds, but it’s time to remind everyone that he was no one-trick pony, that this guy knows how to let a bike roll.

Bill’s eye for the details that can make a static illustration visceral is in full force here. When I first looked at the illustration and saw the lean angle, my heart skipped a beat as I thought about the road wet from snow. It’s just the effect he wanted; there is no drama without danger.

[Update: For the Giro, we are offering the shirt in a limited-edition run of pink, as well as black and white.]